Starbucks to Offer Free AT&T Wi-Fi

Not only has Starbucks been busy outfitting all of its company-operated Starbucks locations with AT&T-supplied Wi-Fi, but that Wi-Fi will now be free to Starbucks card holders for up to two hours per day:

"As a way to thank our loyal customers, Starbucks is offering a reward for registering and using your Starbucks Card - complimentary access to AT&T Wi-Fi for up to two hours per day in any U.S. Starbucks store that offers Wi-Fi."

"To get your AT&T Wi-Fi account, you simply need a Starbucks Card that you have used in the last 30 days, and agree to receive up to four emails per year from AT&T. As long as you continue to use your card at least once a month (make a purchase or load a balance) you'll continue to enjoy up to 2 hours per day of complimentary Wi-Fi access in any U.S. Starbucks store which offers Wi-Fi."

While Starbucks is currently limiting the free access to a single session per day of up to two hours, the company has stated that it is working on a way to spread the two hours across "multiple sessions per day." The initial single-session limitation is a likely a result of Starbucks wanting to get the service operational as soon as possible. A call to Starbucks confirmed that the offer should start being available today. Further technical tweaking of the service will be involved to support the increased intricacy of supporting multiple single-day sessions. It is in Starbucks' best interest to support multiple single-day sessions, as that can increase the number of same-day, return customers buying coffee and other goods.

There is one bit of confusion surrounding the offer: The offer requires a Starbucks.com account, and Starbucks.com accounts can support up to three Starbucks cards. This does not mean, however, that you can have three, two-hour sessions if you have three cards on your account. However, for those who treat Starbucks as their home offices, it is possible--although usually frowned upon--to have multiple Starbucks cards on multiple Starbucks.com accounts if you are sly enough with the personal information you supply during registration. If this is you, just hope that the Wi-Fi routers don't memorize your laptop's MAC address.